Hackers at Large 'on best behaviour'

Almost 3000 hackers from around the world gathered at Twente University in Enschede, Holland over the weekend for the Hackers at Large (HAL) 2001 conference.

After the anarchy at Def Con last month, HAL 2001 reportedly passed without incident. However, Dutch police had warned the hackers that they would face jail sentences if they broke the law.

Attendees registering for the event this weekend were warned: "Don't do anything naughty, because the internal security service is watching you. If you get caught, you'll go to prison."

The organisers had said that they were not expecting trouble but would be monitoring the systems at the event closely, acknowledging the temptation that the conference posed to script kiddies.

"With 1Gb of bandwidth coming almost all the way to your tent, a simple ping-flood is a mighty weapon," said the HAL website.

The HAL team was also keen to dispel the stereotype of hackers as criminals intent on cyber vandalism.

"Powerful people all over the world would like to paint a picture of HAL 2001 as a gathering of dangerous individuals out to destroy," the organisers said. "They care about making us all look like a threat, so they can get the public support needed to lock us all up."

Unlike the smoke bombs and university-style pranks of Def Con, HAL attempted to show the mature side of hacking by encouraging script kiddies and cyber vandals to grow up.

"The post script-kiddie existence offers many rewards: you might have a feeling you've done something useful more often; people won't look at you funny; and you might even get to meet girls," the organisers said.